After the Closed Session concluded at the Council Meeting on March 10th, it was learned that the Municipal Clerk & Registrar, William Bray, would be stepping down. It was a year ago that William Bray was hired, as we covered his hiring here.

As a result, the Borough modified their recently-executed agreement with New Jersey Community Solutions LLC. (Resolution #2025-70) The consulting firm is providing an Interim Borough Administrator as well as recruitment services to the Borough to find a permanent Administrator. The question of part-time or full-time remains.

The modified agreement increases the cost paid to the consulting firm from $32,000 to $48,000. An increase of $16,000.

The modified contract expands New Jersey Community Solutions to provide the Borough with a Deputy Clerk, and increases the hours of the contract to 40 hours per week for March 10 to March 17, and then an estimated 42 hours per week for up to 5 weeks.

The Deputy Clerk will be Maureen Ruane, per Resolution #2025-71, who is also acting as the Interim Borough Administrator. Ms. Ruane is provided to the Borough via the consulting firm, and its contract. She is not considered a Borough employee, receives no benefits from the Borough, and is paid via the consulting firm.

The contract with New Jersey Community Solutions for $48,000 is an all-inclusive cost which covers the Interim Administrator job and now the Deputy Clerk position. This is in addition to the consulting firm actively working on recruitment to permanently fill these two positions.

To replace the now-vacant Registrar position previously held by Mr. Bray, Resolution #2025-68 was introduced after Closed Session to appoint Constance DelRocco as a part-time Registrar who will work up to 5 hours per week at the rate of $40 per hour. It is our understanding that Ms. DelRocco was a part-time Registrar for the Borough in the past.

It is concerning that the Borough of Manville still appears to have an employee retention issue. Positions that are filled do not seem to last long, where an employee decides to leave the Borough. The problem of retention has been going on for quite some time now, especially after the 2023 election, when many employees either decided it was time to retire, or resign. We covered this topic here.

One needs to ask what the driving force is behind these resignations, and what are the Mayor and Council going to do about it?